Posted by Jim on April 18, 2015
By Gerry Adams
When the Government first unveiled its commemoration programme for 1916,
it was widely viewed as short-term, shambolic and superficial.
Since then a former leader of Fine Gael put forward the view that the
Rising was not needed and was a civil war.
Following widespread criticism, and in the run-up to the elections, the
Government has brought forward a more fitting commemoration. This is to
be welcomed.
However, there remains vacuity at the centre of the plans. This
Government just doesn’t get 1916. It is an inconvenient issue and you
get the impression that it just wants the commemorations to be out of
the way and to return to business as usual.
Its approach has been to strip away any politics and context to the
Rising: to reduce it to a tragedy in which death and injury was
inflicted equally on all sides, and so all sides must be equally
remembered.
This is a shallow and wholly self-serving approach to our history.
Devoid of context or politics, the Rising is portrayed as a moment in
history that should be kept in a little glass case and studied; or, in
the view of some in the Redmondite wing of Fine Gael, an unnecessary
moment of madness.
War is brutal. It visits death and injury on all sides. The grief of a
mother and father, brother and sister, or son and daughter is not
diminished by circumstance of that loss. The grief of the family of a
Royal Irish Constabulary member was no different from that of a member
of the Irish Republican Army who fought in the GPO or a civilian killed
on the streets. All have the right to be respected and remembered.
REPUBLICAN BELIEFS
However, it is wrong for the State commemoration to be reduced solely to
an act of remembrance for a collection of individuals. While each has a
story of individual courage and loss, those involved in the Rising were
more than a collection of individuals. They were an army and a movement
with a shared republican politics, shaped by their experience of the
British empire and world war.
Those who took part in the Rising gave their lives and liberty to
deliver the republic enshrined in the Proclamation. A republic built on
the principles of equality and sovereignty, of human rights and civil
liberties, and of unity and nationhood. Principles that remain a
challenge to successive governments in this State.
It is in these principles that we find the Government’s problem with the
commemoration. For this Government, it is easier to deal with the notion
of individual loss and sacrifice than promote the ideas of the
Proclamation.
So the Government does not address the inequality, division and lack of
sovereignty that drove a generation of republicans on to the streets.
They even proposed to rewrite the Proclamation and hope we forget that
the original one has been undermined by the actions of successive
governments. Heaven forbid we mention the North or the failure that is
partition.
The memory and ownership of 1916 does not exclusively belong to Sinn
Fein, any other party or the Government. The commemoration of the Rising
cannot be limited to a lecture, an exhibition or a parade.
NATIONAL RENEWAL
It belongs to the Irish nation, all the people who share this island and
the Irish nation spread across the globe. While the commemoration must
be an opportunity for remembrance, it is also an opportunity for
national renewal, for building a new republic.
In the last election, the Government promised a democratic revolution
and delivered hardship, inequality, continued loss of sovereignty, a
hands-off attitude to the North and the Belfast Agreement. There is a
demand across our nation for change, a demand for the republic promised
in 1916.
Our history cannot be encased in a museum or mausoleum; it is part of
who we are, where we are from and where we want to go.
That is why Sinn Fein developed a programme of events to mark 1916. We
are seeking to encourage communities to engage with their heritage and
to rise to the challenge of delivering a republic for citizens.
It would appear that the Government is afraid to speak of Easter week,
afraid of the challenge that it opens and afraid of the views of
citizens.
The most fitting tribute to the loss of past generations, including
republicans, British and civilians is to deliver the republic promised
on the steps of the GPO, a 32-county republic in which citizens have
equality and rights and the sovereignty of the nation is protected.
This generation has the opportunity and ability to deliver such a
republic without the sacrifice of previous generations. There is a
peaceful and democratic way to achieve this. But it will require
leadership, determination and putting the needs of the nation above
individual political position.
Maybe the real reason the Government does not want to talk about the
unfinished business of 1916 is that it will remind it of its failure and
remind citizens that they retain the power to make good the
Proclamation.
Posted by Jim on
There has been a new spate of racist attacks across Belfast, with the
Polish community being particularly targeted by loyalists.
While anti-Catholic attacks have continued, the number of racist
incidents in Belfast jumped by 50% last year, with over 450 such
attacks. Polish nationals are often singled out by loyalist attackers
as most likely to be Catholic.
Late last month an elderly Polish couple were attacked and verbally
abused on a Belfast bus. Last week three homes belonging to Polish
citizens were attacked in north Belfast.
There was also a devastating arson attack this week on an east Belfast
business followed the appearance of anti-Polish graffiti on a nail
salon, although it is actually owned by a woman from Lithuania.
The Polish government has expressed its serious concern about the
escalation of racist attacks against its citizens living in the North,
while the PSNI police have shown little disinterested.
Honorary consul for the Six Counties, Jerome Mullen, said Polish people
faced an “intolerable situation”, adding “it cannot continue”.
“The Polish community is the largest ethnic community living in Northern
Ireland, they have come here to work hard, to earn a living and to make
a living for their families,” he said.
“To find themselves now at the centre of this particular recent
escalation of attacks on their homes is an appalling situation that has
to be stopped and must be stopped as quickly as possible.”
More than 100 anti-racism campaigners attended a rally in east Belfast
last night in support of the Lithuanian salon owner whose business was
destroyed in an arson attack. Asta Samaliute broke down in tears as
campaigners gathered outside her salon on Castlereagh Street.
Asta’s ‘Glam Factory’ was attacked shortly before midnight on Monday. A
loyalist paramilitary gang forced the shutters up, poured an accelerant
inside and then set it alight. No-one was inside at the time.
The arson attack came just days after graffiti saying “Polish out” was
daubed on the shop front.
Speaking from her salon, which has been extensively damaged by the fire
and smoke, she said she had been left devastated by the attack that may
also put her forthcoming wedding on hold.
“I am supposed to be getting married in four months in Greece, but that
might not go ahead now, I don’t know now,” she said.
“I have been planning my wedding for ages, all my savings went into this
salon and everything is gone. I don’t know now if we can go ahead with
the wedding.”
Asta said her business was a “multi-national salon”, where she employed
two Lithuanian women and another two from Belfast.
Asked what message she had for those responsible, she said: “They really
should be ashamed of themselves”.
“I am trying to make a business, I have worked so hard all my life, I
have put everything into this salon and now it’s all gone,” she said.
Posted by Jim on April 17, 2015
Martin Galvin with a fuller version of his letter which appeared in the Irish News on 8 April 2015. Martin Galvin is a US Attorney with a long history of campaigning on behalf of Irish republicanism and the rights of nationalists in the North of Ireland.
A chara,
“Britannia waives the rules” was a slogan frequently cited in justice campaigns. It was shorthand for Britain’s readiness to discard any binding pledges or legal rights they later found inconvenient. Reports that the British may prosecute six Republican recipients of written immunity certificates show this slogan still applies in the crown’s dealings with the Irish.
Terms for the release of Republican prisoners and closure for those Republicans, who the crown wanted to make prisoners for pre-1998 actions, were high on the agenda in negotiations. No less an authority than Tony Blair, the British leader in these negotiations, said the OTR issue was “absolutely critical”, “fundamental” and talks could have “collapsed” without a satisfactory settlement.
Negotiations on OTRs continued after the Belfast Agreement and were amplified in the Weston Park Accord of 2001.The British, in Paragraph 20, pledged to take such steps as were necessary to insure that prosecutions for pre-April 1998 actions against members of organizations on ceasefire were “no longer pursued”.
Administrative mechanisms were constructed to carry oral and later written immunity pledges. Top constabulary members were assigned to this agreed process. Republicans who had lived years outside the north returned home and lived openly.
No one would have trusted documents that meant only that the crown is not hunting you today but may hunt you tomorrow.
The British pocketed concessions in return then marked time until it was convenient to undercut OTR pledges. When Gerry McGeough was arrested at his vote count in 2007, campaigners said that if Britannia was allowed to waive the rules and jail him, others would surely pay the price. Seamus Kearney is paying the price in Maghaberry today. Ivor Bell is facing forty year old charges. The crown calculated that these respected Republicans would not get the full support they deserved because they were involved in political campaigns as Independent Republicans.
When John Downey was arrested, immunity certificate in hand, Republicans united. Pat Doherty and others are said to have spearheaded an angry reaction within Sinn Fein. The British accepted the setback, and then orchestrated committee hearings as a political pretext for gifting themselves a new set of rules to play by. Cameron thinks after bludgeoning through cuts in the Stormont House Agreement, he can break Blair’s OTR commitments without bother.
Meanwhile the one-sided secretive scheme of undeclared immunity or impunity for members of the British Army or constabulary who committed or colluded in sanctioned murders is unbroken.
If Britannia gets away with waiving the OTR rules, we must ask who and how many will be next? Why do the British bother if we were really getting closer to a united Ireland?
Sincerely
Martin Galvin
Posted by Jim on
JUSTICE FOR THE CRAIGAVON 2
In addressing the continued miscarriage of justice by the Diplock Courts of the British government, the National FFAI Co-Chairmen of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America are requesting the help and support of all of our Brothers, Sisters and supporters of Freedom For All Ireland in bringing closure to the unjust conviction of John Paul Wooten and Brendan McConville in the 2009 murder of PSNI Constable Steven Carroll in Craigavon, Co. Armagh.
Both men have maintained their innocence since the day of their arrest. Despite the fact that the state legal team, charged with handling this case, has failed to prove the charges against Mr. Wooten and Mr. McConville, these men remain prisoners due to an unjust and biased legal system. Their arrest 5 years ago and continued imprisonment was reliant on the word of a very dubious witness, which was proven contradictory and finally discredited by forensic evidence.
Further compounding this case is the fact that the state, for reasons that can only be politically motivated, has refused to afford both men a fair trial. Had the case against John Paul Wooten and Brendan McConville been brought before an American or European court, both men would have been acquitted.
Important Facts that caused the state case against these two men to fail are listed below:
- The witness, mentioned above, did not come forward for 11 months.
- This witness was intoxicated when he contacted the PSNI (the Police Service of Northern Ireland).
- This witness was found to have continuously lied under oath.
- This witness’s statements were at times contradictory to what was stated earlier.
- One of this witness’s statements was proven to have been medically impossible.
- This witness’s identity was hidden from Mr. Wooten’s and Mr. McConville’s legal defense team to prevent proper cross-examination.
- This witness benefited financially from this involvement in the case.
- A covert British army unit was found to have been involved in evidence tampering.A tracking device fitted to John Paul Wootton’s car shows that his vehicle at no time went anywhere near the housing estate where the AK47 used in the shooting was later discovered.
- Data from the tracking device was mysteriously wiped out whilst in the hands of the army. No plausible explanation was given as to why this happened.
- When the AK47 that was used in the shooting was discovered, a partial fingerprint was found on the internal spring mechanism of the magazine. This fingerprint was checked against the fingerprints of Brendan McConville and John Paul Wootton. No matches were found.
These are just some of the facts of this case. Mr. McConville was sentenced to 25 years, while Mr. Wooten (17 years of age at the time of his arrest) was sentenced to 14 years. The continued imprisonment of these men, despite the failure of the state and its legal team to prove their case against them, is indeed an ongoing miscarriage of justice.
John Paul Wooten, Brendan McConville, with their families and many supporters would be greatly appreciative of any assistance our AOH Brothers, Sisters, and friends feel is appropriate in helping to bring this miscarriage of justice and false imprisonment to a final closure.
Posted by Jim on April 14, 2015
The burning of west Belfast’s Bombay Street on in August 1969 marked a pivotal moment in the history of the Troubles. It heralded the deployment of the British …Army onto the streets of Belfast, Almost all of the houses on Bombay street were burned by the loyalists the RUCand the Ulster B specials,many others were burned on Kashmir Road and Cupar Street some of the most extensive destruction of property during the riots
Remains of Bombay Street after being torched by loyalists
